[londoncalling]

Procrastinator, welcome aboard. I loitered around the site for a long time and picked up enough information to save myself some costly mistakes.

Regarding vectoits comprehensive response I would echo his opinion. Rust free -never is; the rockers and the quarter panels will have rust. Once the paint comes off it will be there. The same holds true for the tailgate. I have the clam shell style and both the upper and the lower pieces have rot. In fact, it seems that in some places only the paint was left.

I would add one piece of advice from my limited experience; if the truck has undercoating, scrape it off the critical support structures before you buy. In my case, the body tub supports had been filled with bondo and covered over with undercoating. And that deep rot would have been a clue to additional rot - which was uncovered later on.

I hope that these before and after photos will prove helpful.